The Lagos state government on Wednesday arraigned Peter Nielsen, the Danish man who allegedly killed his wife, singer Alizee, and their three-year-old daughter, Petra.

The corpses of Alizee and her daughter were found in their Banana Island home in April.

Nielsen was arraigned before Bola Okikiolu-Ighile at the Lagos High Court sitting in Igbosere, on two counts of murder, an offence contrary to Section 223 of the Criminal Laws of Lagos, 2015.

He pleaded not guilty to the charges. The trial will begin on October 8.

Olasupo Shasore, the defence counsel and former commissioner for justice in Lagos, requested for permission to allow the defence carry out their own test.

“We are interested in taking the blood sample of the defendant, I thought it will be better to inform this court that his blood sample would be taken for DNA, analysis,” he said.

“We are interested in the autopsy report and the prosecution has assured us that we would get it in four weeks, we need to consult some of our experts for analysis, of the test as we would need it during the trial.”

The judge and the defendant gave their consent.

Adeniji Kazeem, the prosecutor and Lagos state commissioner for justice, told the court that the interim autopsy report available will be made available to the defence.

A magistrate court in Yaba had ordered Nielsen’s remand in prison custody.

The police told the magistrate that the defendant hit his wife’s head against the wall several times, inflicting fatal injuries which led to her death.

He was also alleged to have poisoned their daughter and tried to disguise the said murder incidents as a domestic accident.